This is also Ukraine
Date and time:
Friday 14 November, 2025
18:30 - 21:00
Location:
Birkbeck, University of London
43 Gordon Square
London
WC1H 0PD
Daria, Hanna, Kira, Olexa, Rost, Sasha, Vlada, Vlada, Vesna and Zakhar are ten teenagers who like Radiohead, making art, swimming, dating, watching films and hanging out with their friends. They also live close to the front line. This is also Ukraine is a poetic, patchwork film of their lives from their point of view: unfiltered, normal and equally extraordinary.
In the spring of 2025, these ten young people began filming, writing, singing, dancing, hugging, laughing, crying and meeting up to make a film about their lives –supported by a team of Ukrainian and British artists, psychologists, and producers. See how these young people have cared for and supported each other to explore their thoughts and feelings on identity, belonging, love, rage and living in the face of, and despite, constant danger. This is also Ukraine shows the reality, hopes and challenges of a being a teenager, and of experiences that go unheard while the horror and stupidity of war unfolds. It is also really silly at times because, y’know, balance is important.
Join us for a screening of the film followed by a discussion with project mentor Kateryna Krokha, director James Leadbetter aka the vaccum cleaner, and Art Therapy Force director Veronika Skliarova appearing in conversation with Birkbeck’s Molly Flynn.
Watch the trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yop-1cnBho
A film written, filmed and edited by Daria, Hanna, Kira, Olexa, Rost, Sasha, Vlada, Vlada, Vesna and Zakhar, with mentoring from the vacuum cleaner and Oksana Chyzh, Mariia Felenko, Anastasiia Kosodii, Kateryna Krokha, Andrii Ptitsyn; Producers - Anna Burdina (The Independent Cultural Initiatives), Jenna Omeltschenko, Catherine Herbert, Kateryna Krokha; Senior Editor - Kateryna Krokha; A project by the vacuum cleaner. Made in collaboration with Art Therapy Force, Veronika Skliarova and Natalia Shapovalova. Balmy Ukraine is funded by the British Council’s International Collaboration Grants, and using public funding by Arts Council England. The screening is made possible by Birkbeck Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Mental Health, Birkbeck Institute of the Moving Image, and Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre in partnership with Ukrainian Institute London.
Project Mentor
Kateryna Krokha
Kateryna Krokha is an artist and filmmaker from the Donetsk region who works at the intersection between documentary cinema, video art, and text. She experiments with form and perspective, exploring themes of memory and home. For Kateryna, art is a dialogue and an attempt to record events that never happened.
Art Therapy Force Director
Veronika Skliarova
Veronika Skliarova is a cultural manager, theater producer, and art curator. She is the director of the NGO “Art Dot,” founder of the Art Therapy Force project, and program director of the Parade-fest festival.
Director
James Leadbitter aka The Vacuum Cleaner
James Leadbitter aka The Vacuum Cleaner, the vacuum cleaner is the name of a UK based artist and activist who makes candid, provocative and playful work.
His work combines Mad Pride and disability justice organising, direct action and deep ecology, but always with a lightness and silliness.
Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance
Molly Flynn
Molly Flynn is a Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance at Birkbeck University of London and the co-director of Birkbeck’s Centre for Contemporary Theatre. She is a researcher of contemporary Ukrainian theatre and the editor of Ukrainian New Drama After the Euromaidan Revolution.
